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Zillow on home values

Seattle homes are holding their value better than those of the region in general, according to data Zillow released late Monday.

The typical home was worth $355,560 in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area, $421,986 in King County and $444,229 in Seattle in the last quarter of 2007.

Those values were down 2.6 percent in the area from the last quarter of 2006 and 1.5 percent in King County but up 0.2 percent in Seattle.

Looking just at houses, values were down 2.3 percent in the area and 1.2 percent in King County, but up 1 percent in Seattle, Zillow said.

Condominiums were the one area where Seattle was weaker, with a city decline of 1.4 percent, compared with gains of 0.1 percent in the area and 0.7 percent in the county.

Fourth-quarter home values were down 4.6 percent from the prior quarter in the area, 4.1 percent in King County and 3.9 percent in Seattle.

Nearly 20 percent of people who bought Seattle-area homes in 2007 and more than 11 percent of buyers in 2006 owed more than their homes were worth.

Nationwide, the median home had a value of $224,890, down 3.5 percent from the third quarter and 3 percent from the final quarter of 2006, Zillow said. Condominiums dropped 7.4 percent from a year earlier and 4 percent from the prior quarter, compared with declines of 5.5 percent and 4.4 percent among houses.

“With consecutive declines over the past five quarters, we haven’t seen the housing market bottom yet, and it may very well get worse before things get better,” Stan Humphries, Zillow’s vice president of data and analytics, said in a news release. “Even many markets that have been largely insulated from recent declines, like some in the Pacific Northwest, reported notable value declines in the fourth quarter.”

Zillow said 39 percent of people who bought U.S. homes in 2006 and 30 percent of those who bought in 2007 owe more than their homes are worth.

Value declines only affect homeowners who must sell or withdraw equity immediately, Humphries noted. “The decline in values, combined with the recent rate cuts by the Fed should make entering the market more attractive to would-be buyers, but we may not see any effects until the spring, when the home shopping season usually kicks off.”

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate..